Rampaging otter breaks into family's home and savages girl, 17
A crazed otter burst into a family’s home, then savaged a 17 year-old girl who lives there.
The water-dwelling mammal chased Gwyneth Ewert’s French bulldog Scooter back into his home in Lakeland, Florida, last Tuesday before savaging the teen herself.
Gwyneth’s mother Casina Ewert recalled: ‘(Gwyneth) tried to shut the door, and it pushed its way in, hissing and screaming.’
The creature then bit the teenager on the leg, before repeatedly attacking Scooter in the family’s kitchen and dining room.
Casina told The Ledger: ‘There was blood on the floor, the otter was hissing, and my daughter was screaming.
‘It was going to kill my dog and had already bitten my daughter.’
The biology teacher was forced to pick the otter up by its tail to stop it attacking, with the animal continuing to thrash around in an attempt to attack Casina.
She managed to run over to her back door, throw it outside and slam the door behind her without coming to any harm.
Casina’s immediate worry was whether the otter that bit Gwyneth might have been rabid.
And the family faced further drama, with Gwyneth suffering an extreme allergic reaction to a previous rabies shot following a dog bite in Nicaragua.
Casina took Gwyneth to a hospital for the shot anyway, and explained the predicament to a medic there.
She said: ‘She goes into anaphylaxis shock, her throat closes and she turns white.
‘The (hospital) staff knew of her past reaction and we took every precaution when giving the vaccine. She did not react.’
Scooter the frenchie also suffered scratches and cuts to his face and feet.
He was given a rabies booster and will be quarantined for up to four months.
Local animal trapper Dustin Hooper says he has never heard of an otter attack before.
He went looking for the creature involved, and says he believes it may have been responsible for another attack on a friend’s dog.
Local Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) officials said an otter believed to be the one responsible for the attacks was trapped and killed Friday.
Spokesman Bryce Phillippi said the creature is believed to have attacked two other dogs along a riverbank, one of which was a puppy that had to be put to sleep.
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